Ten of the best prime ministers

The Beggar's Opera, by John Gay

This is one of the earliest appearances of a prime minister in literature, for Sir Robert Walpole was the first British politician to take that title. Walpole was fairly vengeful and very powerful, so representations had to be a little veiled. In Gay's Newgate opera, he is Captain Macheath, the gentlemanly highwayman, otherwise known as "Robin of Bagshot". Walpole is supposed to have been amused, but he made sure that Gay's sequel, Polly, was banned.

The Prime Minister, by Anthony Trollope

There are several PMs depicted in Trollope's novels, but this is the one in which his own hero gets the top job. Plantagenet Palliser, Duke of Omnium, is chosen as an alternative to the warring Gresham and Daubeny (Gladstone and Disraeli). His ministry, however, is undermined by a scandal involving his wife.

Endymion, by Benjamin Disraeli

In his own last novel the former PM abandoned all restraint and had his hero, Endymion Ferrars, emulate himself. After endless political machinations and demonstrations of his prodigious abilities, he becomes PM in the penultimate chapter. Meanwhile his twin sister marries first the foreign secretary, then a foreign monarch. Like a Jeffrey Archer novel, but better written.

Vile Bodies, by Evelyn Waugh

Waugh's satirical novel lurches from one party to the next, with the PM usually one of the guests. As a common sight, he is treated with chatty insolence by other guests. The trouble is, the PM seems to change from one week to the next. Is it Mr Outrage? Or is it Sir James Brown? No one seems quite sure.

Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf

Clarissa Dalloway is married to a Conservative MP, and when the PM arrives at her party, her triumph as a society hostess is confirmed. But some of her guests are underwhelmed. "He looked so ordinary. You might have stood him behind a counter and bought biscuits - poor chap, all rigged up in gold lace."

The Kidnapped Prime Minister, by Agatha Christie

In this short story Hercule Poirot must find the British PM, who has been kidnapped in France. The first world war is still on and he was off to a secret peace conference. Poirot works out that it is all a fiction, and discovers the PM being held by German agents in Hampstead.

The Line of Beauty, by Alan Hollinghurst

Nick Guest, Hollinghurst's parasitic hero, is staying with new Tory MP Gerald Fedden. Everyone is aflutter when Mrs Thatcher descends on the Feddens' party. The fawning is memorably rendered, and naturally Nick, the ingenu, gets on with her most easily.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by JK Rowling

The story opens in the company of the PM, who is working late. Cornelius Fudge appears out of his grate to warn him of Voldemort's nefarious schemes. He is more philosophical about the visitation than his predecessor (Mr Major?), who apparently tried to throw Fudge out of the window.

Saturday, by Ian McEwan

Henry Perowne, McEwan's neurosurgeon protagonist, attends the opening of Tate Modern, where he is introduced to Tony Blair. "To Perownes surprise, Blair was looking at him with recognition and interest." The PM expresses admiration for his work. "In fact, we've got two of your paintings hanging in Downing Street." The episode is said to be autobiographical: Blair once mistook McEwan for a painter.

Never So Good, by Howard Brenton

Not Harold Macmillan's first outing on the London stage: in the wake of the Profumo scandal, Hugh Whitemore's A Letter of Resignation had also brought the canny old buffer to theatrical life. Leftwinger Brenton surprisingly finds pathos in the image of a public school type losing touch with modern life.